All the girls are alive!
By Rajib Sen

Girl Baby

For the first time in India’s recorded history, a woman gave birth to five children together on the morning of 5 May 2015. What is even more surprising in the country’s male-centric mentality is that and all five were girls – yet the thought of infanticide was far from everyone’s mind. Nor did the parents belong to a high-society, big-city family who are supposedly aware of the laws governing infant births and deaths.

The five girls were born in a small-town of Bhucho near Bhatinda in Sangrur district in India’s wild western state of Punjab. They were delivered in the private Adesh Hospital in which their 32-year-old mother, Kuldeep Kaur, the wife of a farmer from nearby Giddaraani village, had been admitted just six days earlier.

The head of the gynaecology department, Dr Harkiran Kaur, said after supervising the deliveries, “Nobody was ready to take this case as it was highly complicated. Kuldeep’s life was in danger as she was carrying five babies with just 5 gm blood. The ultrasound had revealed only four babies but she actually delivered five.”

Fortunately, according to doctors, Kuldeep is now out of danger, but the condition of two of her babies are shaky since they were all born after only seven months of pregnancy and weighed barely 850 grams each. “We are taking care of them and they are under round-the-clock medical supervision,” said Dr Kaur.

Amazing attitude:
With their rural, traditional backgrounds, Kuldeep and her husband, Sukhpal Singh, already had two daughters aged between four and seven, and were weighed down with poverty. But they decided to go ahead and give birth to five other girls. There was absolutely no debate or rancour.

This is an eye-opener in an area in Punjab and neighbouring Haryana that is burdened with an abysmal sex ratio because of such practices as female infanticide if foeticide had not been resorted to before birth. The states already suffer from an ignominious reputation in this regard. Their warped sex ratio has also compelled the Union government to launch pro-girl child welfare programmes like ‘ Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ particularly in these states.

Meanwhile, the quintuplets’ impoverished father who comes from generations of farmers has proclaimed: “I am proud of my daughters and will leave no stone unturned to educate them.” Authorities at Adesh Hospital authorities have also declared that the hospital has waived all expenses incurred during and after the deliveries as a matter of goodwill. They have also appealed to people to help the poor couple. In response, some have already come forward with adoption offers while others have offered help in cash and kind.